Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an interactive control apparatus for an imaging apparatus, in particular, for an imaging apparatus performing optical coherence tomography, connecting with a pointer device controlling a virtual pointer on a displayed GUI.
Description of Related Art
In recent years, in medical fields, more specifically in ophthalmic field, imaging apparatuses (hereinafter, also referred to as OCT apparatus) have been used, the apparatuses each picking up tomographic images (hereinafter, also referred to as optical coherence tomographic image) of a test object using optical coherence tomography (OCT) based on interference of low coherence light. The OCT apparatuses utilize light properties, and thereby can obtain tomographic images of high resolution with an order of light wavelength which is micrometer. Generally, the point where the difference between an optical path length of a measurement light beam and that of a reference light beam is zero is called a coherence gate. It is essential to locate a coherence gate at a proper position on a test object's eye to obtain a tomographic image of a high signal to noise (SN) ratio and to display the tomographic image at a proper position on a monitor. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-160190 discusses an OCT apparatus in which a position of a coherence gate can be specified by moving a cursor displayed on a monitor to facilitate the specification of coherence gate position by user. While a test object's eye such as fundus is measured, the test object's movements, eye blinks, or random slight motions (i.e., involuntary eye movement during visual fixation) are inevitable. The time lag between the adjustment of measurement parameters (focus, coherence gate, etc), and the start of capture of tomograms may result in obtained tomographic images which are not according to the adjusted measurement parameters.